IMAP

What are POP3 and IMAP? Which one should I use?

This is a common question, but if you do not want to read, simply choose POP3 as your email account type.

POP3 and IMAP are 2 different methods to receive email messages from the server. It is important to decide how you want to access your emails before setting up your first email application.

POP3

POP3 is the recommended method if you mainly use one computer to access your emails.

Advantages – POP3 will automatically receive and then remove emails from the server, so that you don’t have to worry about your server mailbox becomes full.

Disadvantages – If you use multiple devices to access your emails, their contents will not be synchronized. For example, if you replied a message on your computer, the replied message will not appear on your smartphone.

IMAP

IMAP is the recommended method if you use multiple devices to access your emails.

Advantages – IMAP will synchronize the content between all your devices. For example, if you replied a message on your computer, the replied message will also appear on your smart phone.

Disadvantages – You must, from time to time, move old messages from the server mailbox to your local mailbox to free up server spaces.

Advanced

SSL/TLS

SSL is outdated. If your email application support both SSL and TLS, choose TLS.

Setting up SSL on your own computer not trivial. SXL can help you to do it at our regular service rate.

All settings are the same for SSL and non-SSL, except you have to enable SSL/TLS in your application and change the server ports.

SMTPs port: 587*

POP3s port: 995

IMAPs port: 993

*The standard SMTPs port is 587 but some older email applications will not work with it. In this case, please try port 465.

You must accept our server’s SSL certificate once when you setup the email account.

If your email app keep asking you to accept the SSL certificate every time you send/receive emails, you must also add the SSL certificate to the Root Certification Authority (Windows) or System Keychain (Mac).

Port 25 blocked by ISP or Corporate Firewall

In order to avoid junk mails, most ISPs and corporate firewall blocked the port 25 to send emails. Our SMTP server accept the following ports, you may need to try them one by one if you are blocked.

587 (either TLS or non-SSL)

465 (SSL only)

2525 (non-SSL only)

25 (non-SSL only)

Other email related FAQs

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